August 2020, No. 55

Publication of the Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel—Australasia

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We have a new

!!!story on page 4 The Augustinian Community in Saigon

Message from the Provincial

Welcome to the August 2020 issue of The Augustinian.

As I write this message, I am conscious that these times are difficult for all. Each of you are aware of the ways the covid-19 pandemic and its implications are affecting our emotions, sense of well-being, sense of hope both personally and communally. We particularly hold in our prayers and concern those directly affected – those who have contracted the virus, the elderly in their vulnerability, those who find themselves alone, those families who are struggling with loss of income, the young whose dreams for the future have been put on hold, medical personnel very much on the front line and leaders who carry heavy responsibilities at this time. As a nation and a global community we together share the pains and anguish of our time.

I recently was reading the novel The seen Augustine, the woman , now elderly, hears Confessions of X – A Novel by Suzanne Wolfe. It that Bishop Augustine is dying in Hippo as the city is a speculative account of the experience of the is in turmoil with the Vandal invasions. She risks woman loved by Augustine in his youth who was the her own safety to travel a great distance to visit mother of their son Adeodatus. The contemporary him one last time. The havoc in the city of Hippo author writes as though she was the unnamed as she arrives is described in vivid detail. The woman and so writes in the first person. Though final scene is her witness of Augustine on his bed the work is one of using what was known from praying the psalms as he entrusts his life to God. Augustine’s own Confessions and other sources as For the woman this scene is a testament to hope - a springboard for the imagination, it is a profoundly a hope not unrealistically removed from what can moving account of the woman’s experience of love, appear to overwhelm us but hope in the midst of cruel separation, grief and acceptance. Towards the struggle, hope that transforms. the end of the novel, after many years of not having

2 THE AUGUSTINIAN | AUGUST 2020 Fr. Sullivan with Vietnamese born : Deacon Tuan, Br. Tu, Fr. Tran and Fr. Hoang

In a very different context, as this year’s celebration of the Solemnity of Augustine draws near, hope that can sustain us as we grapple with what is chaotic and difficult to comprehend is a gift for which we all yearn and by which we seek to support one another through our acts of compassion and concern.

This is the time of the year when the Order in Australia promotes the Annual Augustinian Appeal. We are conscious that many individuals and families in our ministries are struggling so this informing you of the 2020 Appeal is done with sensitivity. There are three causes for which the Order invites assistance – our community in Vietnam, the Augustinian Seminary and Augustinian Volunteers Australia. You are welcome to choose to which of these you may wish to contribute. However, our greatest need is support for the community in Saigon, Vietnam. Frs Tran, Hoang and Sullivan are doing great work in hosting five young vocation enquirers learning about Augustinian community life and they guide three pre-novices in the formation programme. While of our three causes, this Augustinian Vietnam Appeal is not able to attract a tax deduction, we hope you are able to consider helping us in supporting this endeavour.

I hope you enjoy this issue of The Augustinian – joyous news on the recent of Fr. Phạm Quang Tuyến (Tuyến) OSA (priesthood) and Deacon Lê Tuấn Anh (Tuấn Anh) OSA (diaconate), an international perspective of the Augustinian family in the time pandemic from Fr. Tony Banks OSA (Assistant General) and a report from Paul Wilson (Augustinian Volunteers Australia) on the Bigambul project. In our regular features of our ministries, there is a focus on Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair, NSW.

You are all in the prayers of the members of the Order in these days. Best wishes to each of you and your families for this year’s celebration of Saint Augustine’s Day. - Fr. Peter Jones OSA

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE! We are pleased to announce the launch of our brand new website! Visit www.osa.org.au to check it out and let us know what you think. We welcome any feedback you may have on how we can further improve the website. We hope you enjoy the fresh look of our redesigned website!

VISIT US ONLINE | www. osa.org.au OF PHAM QUANG TUYEN OSA

On Saturday 1st August 2020 at Holy Spirit parish, St Clair, , Vietnamese Augustinian of the Australian Province, Pham Quang Tuyen (31), was ordained priest by Bishop Vincent Long, bishop of Parramatta Diocese, Sydney. Bishop Long himself came to Australia at the age of 19 and hails from the same village in Vietnam as Tuyen. Because of the Covid19 restrictions, Tuyen’s ordination had already been postponed from last May and at this time only 100 guests were allowed to attend. Fortunately, Tuyen’s parents had come to his ordination to the diaconate last August 20th and this time were able to participate in real time from Vietnam as the entire ceremony was streamed. His uncle and two cousins were, however, able to attend as they live in Sydney. Tuyen has been 7 years in formation in Australia and has spent the last 18 months in St Clair parish under the mentorship of Fathers Peter Tangey and Belonio OSA. Tuyen’s family is fairly unique in that he has two other brothers who are , another was ordained deacon in July this year and his youngest brother has just joined our Augustinian aspirants in Saigon. God willing, that could be five priests from the one family. So Tuyen’s parents could rival the parents of St Therese of Lisieux who have recently been canonized , the first to be canon- ized as a couple. All their five daughters became - Fr. John Sullivan OSA

4 THE AUGUSTINIAN | AUGUST 2020 Congratulations TO OUR NEW DEACON

The Ordination of Brother Tuan Anh Le OSA to the Diaconate on August 15th was a faithfilled experience even under the restrictions placed on us through numbers attending and maintaining social distancing. It was so appropriate that the feast day was the as she is also the patron of Tuan Anh’s Diocese in Vietnam. Mark Coleridge gave an inspiring homily on the victory of Christ ‘s Redemptive victory over death …”and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death…” (1 Cor 15-25} making the connection between Mary’s Assumption and the Resurrection. While there was a good representation from and seminarians from the Archdiocese, the travel restrictions meant that the Augustinians and affiliates from the southern states were not able to be present. The streaming of the event made it possible for the ceremony to be seen in Sydney, Melbourne and especially by Tuan Anh’s family and friends in Vietnam. The parish community of Coorparoo was honoured and enthusiastic to be part of our Brother Tuan Anh’s journey to the priesthood. All look forward to the exercise of his pastoral ministry in the months ahead. As Tuan Anh commented to the Archbishop at the concluding speeches…”Archbishop, you have literally made my day.” May he continue to be guided by the Holy Spirit. - Ray Mitchell

VISIT US ONLINE | www. osa.org.au FORMATION UPDATE

For about 6 months now our life as a church and as an Augustinian community have been challenged by the Corona Virus pandemic. Many of the activities in our lives have been put on hold including the programs in the life of the Australian Province. Having said that, it is not all ‘dark and gloomy’ for the students in our forma- tion houses. Milestones happened to some and re- newal of commitments to others. I want to share to you the recent events in the life of our students: On Wednesday, 17th June, 2020 Brothers Đỗ Đức Brother John Zhang OSA (right) with Fr. John Sullivan OSA at Diệm OSA (Diệm), Nguyễn Đức Tín OSA (Tín) and his farewell dinner from the Formation Community Choi Jae-Yong OSA (Marco) (Delegation of ) made their First Profession of Religious Vows at the -Pacific Augustinian , Cebu, Phil- ippines after completing a year of novitiate. On the other hand, our brothers Nguyễn Hoàng Huy OSA (Huy) and Nguyễn Văn Tú OSA (Tú) made their Re- newal of Temporary Vows on Monday, 22nd June 2020 at Our Lady of Grace Chapel, Brookvale, NSW. Meanwhile, after 8 years of seminary formation, Brother Huyao (John) Zhang OSA is formally ap- pointed as community member of Our Mother of Good Counsel , St Clair, NSW with pastoral formation at Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair commenc- Brothers Đỗ Đức Diệm OSA (Diệm), Nguyễn Đức Tín OSA (Tín) ing on 15th August 2020. and Choi Jae-Yong OSA (Marco) (Delegation of Korea) during their First Profession of Religious Vows at the Asia-Pacific - Fr. Jepser Bermudez OSA Augustinian Novitiate.

Brothers Nguyễn Hoàng Huy OSA (Huy) and Nguyễn Văn Tú OSA (Tú) renewing their Temporary Vows before Fr. John Sullivan OSA, Prior of the Formation Community

6 THE AUGUSTINIAN | AUGUST 2020 Fr. Tony Banks OSA, Assistant General, with The Augustinians the Augustinian brothers in Formation

in the time of the Pandemic Our Order of St Augustine has a different story to most religious yet utterly in As did the Augustinians of the past so the keeping with the traditions of the Church and men and women of the present are still providing Scriptures. We have no explicit founder yet take transforming programs to better the lives of our heritage from St Augustine, our background others. But this flows out of who we are; the from the original who moved into the common life defines our being. Our General and cities as mendicants, our response to the people Council have heard that across the continents of the time who called us into their cities and our our members have needed to spend more time gratitude to the French who saw us as part together. The prayer life of the community has of the solution to church corruption. flourished, especially in prayer for those outside our chapels. Meal times have lengthened. In the midst of a chaotic world and church Community life has improved. As for many the Augustinians emerged as a new group bearing families, so we as an Order are rediscovering ancient messages. They described themselves what really binds us together. as communities in which the members are one in heart and mind intent upon God. This new Our vows take on a stronger sense as we federation of monasteries and communities come to value our obedience to the greater will spread like wildfire across in the latter of the whole community which is guided by the 13th century and peaked just before the world Holy Spirit. The sense of our common poverty, experienced a pandemic – the black plague. wherein all things are held in common for the greater community and for those coming after us The Augustinians across the world have has greater awareness as we note the transience confronted the 21st century pandemic and like of the present. And then there is the call to love many other groups have turned to ZOOM and the whole world, without any conditions, and other such programs to be in touch and to tell our to manifest that love in a sense of hope and joy, stories to each other. In Iquitos our people even in the face of turmoil and terror – by the are the providers of PPE and ventilators, in Cebu way we Augustinians call that chastity. What do we have programs to help the truly you value, whom do you serve, where is your poor, at the UN we advocate for WHO despite its love? weaknesses, and in run programs for the dispossessed migrants. Our greatest pain is that the community that is the whole Body of Christ cannot be with us today as we lead prayer and . But we pledge that the Eucharist we celebrate in our lonely chapels, is not simply for our renewal, but reminds our Saviour of the needs of all the redeemed. Our values are only of use if they are evocative to you of the primacy of God’s Kingdom. We are again in the process of discovering the core of our existence.

- Fr. Tony Banks OSA Augustinian friars at the Mid- preparatory meeting on Zoom VISIT US ONLINE | www. osa.org.au During the pandemic in Australia, The Queensland group of Augustinian Volunteers Australia (AVA) has been working with Bigambul Aboriginal Corporation of Goondiwindi to help reconstruct their language. This has required much work in research by Volunteers, with regular zoom meetings and phone calls to keep up with the yearning of community members to reconstruct and know their language. To date, some hundreds of words have been recovered from lists compiled by early pastoral- ists, explorers and even church pastors as they recorded the language they heard in late 19th and early 20th Century incursions into the Condamine area.

AUGUSTINIAN VOLUNTEERS IN QUEENSLAND ASSIST Language Restoration The area being discussed here sits on the The expansion of the colony through pasto- border between Queensland and New South Wales ralists and explorers included also, sadly, those who along a section of the Condamine River. The fol- would destroy both language and culture. Australian lowing map gives some idea of the clans whose Parliaments struggled in their protection of Aborig- campsite (their ngura) was situated along the inal peoples from 1901 to obviate these problems. Condamine River. A clan in Aboriginal terms is a Today groups like Augustinian Volunteers are now gathering usually of extended family. Around the needed to assist communities and Government in the Sydney area, where Augustinian Volunteers learnt reconstruction of these lost languages. their craft as language researchers and teachers with the Redfern community, this would have AVA Volunteers have spent early weeks of the been no more than around sixty people or so. We COVID lockdowns in Australia, after responding to can think of these Condamine groups in much the a community leader’s call for assistance, to follow up same way. all leads to recover the lists of Bigambul words that are still extant in libraries. Volunteers have set these up in a new listing juxtaposed with the lists of near- by communities for comparison. More recently they have begun the onerous task of trying to differenti- ate between the languages of the various Condamine clans as seen in this map. This is difficult because the communities here are very close to one another. They probably included some family members and may have shared some words because of their proximity to one another. Present day members of Bigambul are keen to identify their precise linguistic heritage, of course. AVA have the privilege of their own assistant Linguist, Jeremy Steele, who together with the Exec. Officer of Augustinian Justice & Peace based in Syd- ney, have reorganised the words into a list according to spelling, origins and pronunciation (see table be- low). These were recorded onto a Mac Itunes app so that the community can now hear pronunciations of the words that were lost to them in early times of the colony. The Officer and Aunty Rhonda Sandow of the

8 THE AUGUSTINIAN | AUGUST 2020 Augustinian Volunteers Anna and Claire in research community will commence travelling to Goondiwindi soon taking Augustinian Volunteers to meet with Big- ambul elders and share their knowledge of the words they have recovered.

Therefore, on Friday 31st July, Volunteers gathered together with Jeremy Steele, AVA language expert and met via ZOOM with Aunty Rhonda, Corporation CEO Justin Saunders and another five Bigambul members of varying ages. After introductions and explanations of what had been achieved so far, the Volunteers played the recording of the 14 pages of Bigambul words secured so far. One could almost say the community members seemed mesmerised. They were hearing words spoken by Jeremy that dated back thousands of years and which had not been heard spoken, for most words, in nearly 150 years. Quite a telling experience for everyone.

At the end of the ZOOM, Aunty Rhonda appealed to her board to secure the necessary resources to set up the new Language Centre and to continue the language work of AVA through its next stages of teaching mentors and young people the language and presenting it to visitors over the next two years. The Volunteers know that all the literature demonstrates how language is a crucial factor for young and old alike in Aboriginal Communities in issues of Identity and Belonging. AVA volunteers look forward to the continuation of this precious work with the Bigambul community. - Paul Wilson

The First Bigambul Recovered Language Zoom.

AUGUSTINIAN VOLUNTEERS AUSTRALIA TRUST FUND If you would like to know more about what we do, please visit our website. You can also donate via our website or by direct deposit

Website: www.augustinianvolunteersaustralia.org Account Name: Augustinian Volunteers Australia Trust Fund BSB: 062 287 Account Number: 1043 4293 Reference: Please include your name

VISIT US ONLINE | www. osa.org.au

Coronavirus:A PARISH DIARY

Holy Spirit Parish is centred upon the suburb of St Clair, forty-five kilometres west of central Sydney, and within the Diocese of Parramatta. The Augustinians have administered the parish for twenty-five years, and Michael Belonio OSA has been parish priest there since January 2015.

It was the weekend of 1-2 February As days go by, it was getting serious and 2020 that the first Covid-19 restrictions were people started to become cautious of social introduced. We celebrated that same weekend the distancing. It was the weekend of 21-22 March 25th year anniversary of the Augustinian presence (4th Sunday of Lent) that only 100 people are in St Clair. Part of the restrictions was about the allowed inside the church building. I remember we distribution of holy communion under one species rearranged the chairs in the church that Saturday and that will be received in the hand. We were also afternoon with the Men’s Ministry according to advised to eliminate or avoid physical contact in the 4 square meter rule. Monday 23 March was the exchange of peace. Many people were still not the last I celebrated in the church, then by bothered so much about the virus as Australia had noontime of that same day church building was a total of only 12 coronavirus cases then, and all of closed since then. The days of uncertainty started them reported a travel history to China. to unfold. Usually it was during those times that

10 THE AUGUSTINIAN | AUGUST 2020 we get so busy preparing for the Easter Triduum. all caught unprepared as there is no manual or It was a sad and weird experience to celebrate textbook to follow. I suppose all of us have been Easter Triduum in the priory with just the three of asking questions like when we’ll we be able to go us. Zoom and social media became the venue for back to normal and how much the church change for meetings and catch-ups. a new normal. And this ‘new normal’ that we have now might stay for a while until there is a vaccine. However, the lockdown became a blessing What we have experienced and will continue to in disguise because we got the opportunity to do the renovations in the church – sacristy, two parish kitchens and storage room – without any disruption. We had been able to secure grant funding from the Federal Government for these projects just before the lockdown. The Men’s Ministry, Deacon Tuyen, myself and other parishioners kept ourselves busy with the renovations. It was a hard work but we managed to finish it just before the soft-reopening of churches on 18th May.

It was a happy moment to see a few experience is going to force the Church to change parishioners back in the church and celebrate the in some ways. Are we ready to embrace the ‘new Eucharist with them, even though only 10 people normal’? With the situation we are currently in, we were allowed to be in the church building at any have to focus and invest on our online resources one time. Then the 10-persons limit became 50 and community. It is interesting to see that the in 1st June, then became unlimited depending on digital community was a real community. Do we the area of the church building in 1st July. At Holy have online tools so people could easily give their Spirit we are able to accommodate 175 people in donations? With the restrictions still in place to the the church building, excluding the clergy and those elderly, how are we going to connect with them? involved in the liturgy. The lockdown led us to become creative ministers.

Looking back, the lockdown gave us plenty We are in a liminal season, stuck between of time to think about what really matters most an ending and a new beginning. The pathway to us, i.e., catching up with friends and family, forward is unknown. As we re-open our churches, reconciling with ourselves, the growing desire to will be business as usual? As we rush to return celebrate eucharist with the community. We were to normal, let us use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.

- Fr. Michael Belonio OSA

Fr. Quang Tuyen Pham OSA with some parishioners doing renovation work in the parish

VISIT US ONLINE | www. osa.org.au WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT! This year’s Annual Appeal, focused on Augustinian Vietnam Mission Fund and other ministries, is being held in August, around the time of St Augustine’s Day. There are various ways you can contribute to the Order:

AUGUSTINIAN VIETNAM MISSION FUND AUGUSTINIAN SEMINARY TRUST FUND (not tax deductible) (Tax deductible) Donations will be used to assist the new Augustinian Donations are used exclusively for the ongoing Community in Saigon with their setup costs which provision for our seminarians. Envelopes are include preparation to invite young Vietnamese available in our parishes and you can make a to test their vocation in the Augustinian Come and donation by cash, credit card or direct deposit. See Program. You can make a donation by cash or direct deposit. Account Name: Augustinian Seminary Trust Account Name: Augustinian Vietnam Mission Fund Fund BSB: 082 146 BSB: 082 146 Account Number: 13 610 4220 Account Number: 7359 03067 Reference: Please include your name Reference: Please include your name

AUGUSTINIAN VOLUNTEERS AUSTRALIA BEQUESTS TRUST FUND (Tax deductible) If you would like to know more about what we do, Please contact the Province Office for information please visit our website. on how you can leave a bequest to the Province. Website: www.augustinianvolunteersaustralia.org For donations made by direct deposit, please con- You can also donate via our website or by direct tact our office for a tax deductible receipt. deposit Mailing Address: Account Name: Augustinian Volunteers Australia Order of St Augustine Trust Fund PO Box 7278 Warringah Mall BSB: 062 287 Brookvale NSW 2100 AUSTRALIA Account Number: 1043 4293 Phone: +61 2 9938 0200 Reference: Please include your name Email: [email protected]

THE AUGUSTINIAN August 2020 For additional copies, or to unsubscribe, PUBLICATION TEAM please contact the Provincial Office: Fr Percival Sevare OSA (Coordinator) Order of Saint Augustine Fr Peter Jones OSA PO Box 7278 Warringah Mall Fr John Sullivan OSA Brookvale NSW 2100 AUSTRALIA Fr Michael Belonio OSA PHONE +61 2 9938 0200 Br Duc Tin Nguyen OSA (Layout artist) EMAIL [email protected] www. osa.org.au